


Compartmentalising

by ToxicPineapple



Series: Domestic Married Amasai Oneshots [3]
Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Angst, As with all of my fics, Background Tenkaede, Crying, Domestic, Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Forehead Kisses, Hmm :3, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, I go more into depth with Rantaro's therapy gig in this one!, M/M, Married Couple, Non-Hope's Peak Academy, Past Shuichi/Angie, Same universe as "Icy Cold", anyway, it's like one line, oh boy, one (1) kiss, past saimatsu, what's their ship name?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:08:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23508919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToxicPineapple/pseuds/ToxicPineapple
Summary: Not that Rantaro’s always been the most expressive, at least as it pertains to negative emotion, but after being in a relationship for a while, one starts to be able to tell. Shuichi frowns, resting his book down on the arm of the chair. Rantaro’s brow is furrowed, and his hair is messy, like he’s been running his hands through it. His bus ride home is forty-five minutes, usually, but it can be longer or shorter depending on the time of day. Rantaro is claustrophobic, so sitting on a bus with all of those people usually isn’t the greatest thing for him. Though, Shuichi doesn’t think that the borderline crestfallen look on his husband’s face is necessarily due to the transit.“Rantaro?” Shuichi shifts his body a little bit more to face him properly, feeling his frown deepen when Rantaro doesn’t meet his eyes. “Are you alright?”---Shuichi has a day off; Rantaro comes home from a rough day at work. Some problems don't need to be talked out.
Relationships: Amami Rantaro/Saihara Shuichi
Series: Domestic Married Amasai Oneshots [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1691560
Comments: 6
Kudos: 54





	Compartmentalising

For someone who works as much as Shuichi does, it comes off as a surprise to a lot of people that he actually really enjoys days off. In all honesty, he’s… not entirely sure why. Sure, he tries to finish things up as quickly as possible (and often that results in him working for a lot longer than he maybe should) and back in high school he missed out on a lot of sleep in an attempt to finish up cases that he had taken for his uncle, but… he just thinks that’s a matter of conscientiousness if anything. He strives to be the kind of person who finishes what he starts, and in a timely manner as well. He’s not a teenager anymore, so usually he tries to wrap up any work that he has to take home with him at around eleven at the latest, but he thinks it’s irresponsible to slack off.

With all of that said, Shuichi likes taking breaks. Back in college, he got into his first long-term relationship with his friend Kaede-- and probably one of the most… he doesn’t want to say infuriating, but maybe  _ difficult  _ parts of their relationship was Kaede’s assumption that he had to be harassed to rest. Sometimes he needs a nudge in the right direction for sure, but Shuichi really does enjoy taking time for himself. On days off (and he has quite a few because his uncle is his employer) he likes to spend his time curled up in his husband’s favourite armchair with a book in hand and a mug of coffee on the table next to him.

Well, he supposes that’s not entirely the truth. That’s his favourite pastime for when his husband is working and he isn’t. (It’s always good to get some Agatha Christie in on a Thursday morning.) They both have Fridays and the occasional Saturday off, though, so on days when he and Rantaro are both at home, Shuichi’s favourite pastime is… typically Rantaro-related. They don’t go on a lot of  _ dates  _ anymore, because they’re both getting into the second half of their thirties and neither of them has as much energy as they used to-- what a stupid thing to think, being thirty six, but Shuichi still feels like he’s twenty some days and his perception of age hasn’t really changed all that much-- but they still spend their days off with each other, doing whatever it is that compels them as the days arive.

Sometimes they’ll go out for breakfast. Rantaro’s more of an early riser than Shuichi is so typically he’s the one to make breakfast, but they’ll work on it together on occasion. They always have random movies migrating on and off of their shelves, compliments of Rantaro’s friend Mukuro, who works at a video store and gives them discounts on mystery movies, and other times they’ll just curl up together and Rantaro will rest his head in Shuichi’s lap while Shuichi reads aloud.

Domesticity is bliss, huh?

Anyway, Rantaro’s off work early today. Thursdays are always slow days for him. But Shuichi still has the morning to himself, which is nice. He’s in love with Rantaro and all, like, beyond anything he’s felt with any of his previous partners (including Kaede, who he liked-- and still likes-- a whole lot more than he makes it sound by thinking about things that led to the downfall of their relationship; the nagging wasn’t all one-sided because Kaede had a weird habit of playing the piano into the early hours of the morning, though supposedly her fiance, Tenko, doesn’t mind that so much) but it’s nice to have some downtime to himself every once in a while. Shuichi thrives off of solitude.

  
And Rantaro gets it. He’s always been a more lax person overall. His presence is disarming but more than that it’s relaxing. Sometimes they’ll sit down in a room together and be completely bathed in silence. Those moments can stretch way into the evening, until eventually Rantaro gets to his feet and says quietly that they should get some rest. Shuichi still needs his space sometimes, though. To recharge or whatever, or else to mull things over, because as nice as Rantaro is to sit with sometimes the mere presence of another being in the room with him is disruptive. Rantaro is very understanding about all of that. They both have their quirks.

As Shuichi flips the page (he’s read this book before and he doesn’t have to pay too much attention to the small details because he knows them all by heart) he hears padded footsteps coming from down the hall and smiles to himself. Their cat, a gift to them from Ryoma when the cat he got from a shelter gave birth to a full litter, isn’t actually all that big on touches, but sometimes she’ll plop herself down in Shuichi’s lap for a rare cuddle. Rantaro’s better in the cuddling area though for sure. He’s naturally warm, first of all. Shuichi’s been told on numerous occasions that he’s something like an ice box to his husband’s fireplace. Whatever. Haters gonna hate.

Tsuki (the cat) jumps up onto the arm of the chair, bumping Shuichi’s arm with his nose to get him to make space. Shuichi smiles to himself and shifts his weight so he’s leaning against the other arm. That’s fair, Tsuki.

Shuichi’s about three quarters of the way through the book when he hears the door unlocking over in the foyer. He doesn’t get up, though. Rantaro will be walking through the living room to get to the other parts of the house regardless, and he’s not planning on moving from this spot until he’s finished the book entirely. Tsuki, however, leaps off the chair and pads down the hall. Traitor. Shuichi shakes his head, smiling to himself, and turns the page, listening to the sound of the door closing and his husband dropping his bags down on the floor. He’ll probably be hanging up his coat-- he’s so responsible when it comes to small gestures like that-- and changing into his indoor clothing right now.

After a while, Shuichi hears approaching footsteps from the foyer. The pause between the door closing and Rantaro actually entering the sitting room was probably just spent petting their cat. Clearly Tsuki has taken off again to go entertain himself somewhere else. Shuichi turns his head now, opening his mouth to apologise for not having dinner ready (since he’s been reading since he got up this morning) but he stops short when he sees the look on Rantaro’s face.

Not that Rantaro’s always been the most expressive, at least as it pertains to negative emotion, but after being in a relationship for a while, one starts to be able to tell. Shuichi frowns, resting his book down on the arm of the chair. Rantaro’s brow is furrowed, and his hair is messy, like he’s been running his hands through it. His bus ride home is forty-five minutes, usually, but it can be longer or shorter depending on the time of day. Rantaro is claustrophobic, so sitting on a bus with all of those people usually isn’t the greatest thing for him. Though, Shuichi doesn’t think that the borderline crestfallen look on his husband’s face is necessarily due to the transit.

“Rantaro?” Shuichi shifts his body a little bit more to face him properly, feeling his frown deepen when Rantaro doesn’t meet his eyes. “Are you alright?”

His husband hums, low and long, and walks over to him. In lieu of speaking, he slinks down to his knees at Shuichi’s feet and bows his head. Obligingly, Shuichi reaches out, threading his fingers through the scattered mop of green hair that is presented to him and shifting forward so that Rantaro may rest the side of his face on his thighs. Neither of them says anything-- Shuichi, because he’s waiting for Rantaro to speak, and Rantaro, likely because he doesn’t know how to say what’s bothering him-- but after a while Rantaro’s shoulder’s start to shake, and Shuichi feels moisture seeping through the thin fabric of his pajama pants, so, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what’s going on.

Shuichi shifts his hand to tangle his fingers in the baby hairs at the scruff of Rantaro’s neck, gently massaging out the stress. He watches as Rantaro’s shoulders relax and he leans further into the half-embrace, a soft, pained sound leaving his throat. “Did something happen at work, love?” Shuichi asks delicately. Usually Rantaro doesn’t cry like this. Well, he  _ cries--  _ they both cry. But Shuichi’s the stress crier in this relationship. Rantaro’s been woken up at three in the morning on numerous occasions to walk in on Shuichi sobbing over a bowl of cookie dough. It happens.

But Rantaro compartmentalises his emotions. It helps in his line of work. Being a therapist, you’re bound to hear a lot of  _ awful  _ thinks on the daily. (Shuichi knows he wasn’t exactly a ray of sunshine when he saw his on the reg; he still has the self-harm scars to prove it.) And Rantaro specialises with… well, with children. He’s a child’s therapist, working in the youth department of the largest counseling office in their city. Rantaro has a big heart-- which is why he’s a therapist in the first place-- and it’s hard to deal with if you don’t… stop yourself, in a sense, from getting emotionally involved. Rantaro’s good at that, in a way? It’s not really something that they talk about. But Shuichi knows that often he has to turn off the part of him that makes him  _ Rantaro Saihara-Amami, the man he married  _ in order to do his work.

In any case, this isn’t the first time that… something like this has happened. Rantaro’s human. And he cares too much sometimes for somebody in his position. It’s why Shuichi could  _ never  _ be a therapist. Kaede used to tell him that his emotional involvement in all of his cases is what makes him such a good detective. (She’ll still insist as much if he needs to hear it, but it was more special hearing it back in the days when she made his world turn.) A little bit of genuine care from the person trying to get to the bottom of the case you hired them for can go a long way. Professionalism is important of course, but it will make way for compassion every time. And Shuichi can’t turn that off. He cares too  _ much. _

“I can’t talk about it,” Rantaro says eventually. Faintly, hoarsely. Shuichi was expecting that response, but it still tugs at his heart because that means that there’s no way he can help. Rantaro takes patient confidentiality very seriously. To the point where he’s kind of an unwelcome face at the local police department for how many times he’s been extremely unhelpful in their investigations. (That’s fine; Shuichi hates the police.) But it also means that Shuichi just has to sit here and watch him deal with it without being to help in any real way. It’s not his favourite feeling. They tend to work through problems together. But he can’t do that if it’s patient-related.

“I understand,” he replies regardless, shoving down the urge to sigh and instead focusing on untangling Rantaro’s curls, slipping his fingers through the soft, pleasant-smelling locks. This isn’t really fair. But Rantaro is a medical professional and there are certain things he needs to cope with.

“‘m such a mess,” Rantaro chuckles, low and sarcastic. Shuichi presses his lips together. “I was going to stay at the office for a while longer but Angie made me go home. She’s probably better at all of this than I am.”

Angie being Angie Yonaga, Shuichi’s high school girlfriend and also technically Rantaro’s superior? She’s just another therapist (though Angie counsels adults-- she does best with couples but Shuichi understands that she talks to individuals as well) working in the same office but she has seniority. Still,  _ that,  _ Shuichi can reassure his husband about. “Well, she’s been working for a bit longer than you have. She’s probably more used to not letting things get into her personal life.”

“Yeah,” Rantaro sighs, slumping completely against Shuichi’s legs. Shuichi feels his eyelashes fluttering as his eyes close, the warmth of his chest pressing against his calves. “Sorry. I was trying not to cry all through the ride home and I didn’t want to bother you but the minute I heard your voice, I--”

“You know it’s not a bother,” Shuichi admonishes, leaning forward to lay down a few kisses to the crown of Rantaro’s head. “You’re never a bother to me.”

“I guess I would be a hypocrite if I doubted you considering what I’m telling my clients all the time,” Rantaro chuckles again, more warmly this time, and Shuichi nuzzles against his head, humming. “Trust people when they say that they care about you, and all that. What could go wrong.”

“After being married for five years,” Shuichi frowns. “I would  _ hope  _ that you believe that I care about you. Am I going to have to call Angie for professional reasons?” He’s joking, of course. His ex-girlfriend is hardly a viable candidate for a therapist. Even if it has been twenty years since they went out. He just wants Rantaro to laugh, is all. And more than those self-deprecating little chuckles he gives in the wake of his breakdowns. Shuichi wants him to smile because he feels like it, not to lighten up the mood.

“Haha, no, that won’t be necessary…” It has the intended effect… somewhat. Rantaro opens one of his eyes, peeking up at Shuichi with his mouth twitching at the corners. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Shuichi responds automatically, unthinkingly, and gives Rantaro another kiss, this one on his forehead. “C’mon, I’ll make dinner. I bought some frozen octopus on the way home yesterday and you can laugh at me failing to shape it into balls.”

“I like your takoyaki,” Rantaro mumbles, sitting up to allow Shuichi to stand. When he’s offered a hand up, he reaches out and takes it, and Shuichi grips him tight, hoping to provide some of that comforting security he always gets when it’s the other way around. Once Rantaro is on his feet, Shuichi reaches up to cup his face with both hands and tugs him down into a lingering (but chaste, obviously chaste) kiss.

Rantaro hums against it. Shuichi smiles slightly when he feels him leaning into his touch. They pull apart after a while, and Shuichi tangles their fingers together, making his way to the kitchen with Rantaro in tow. As he opens the crisper, digging around through ice cream cartons and other assorted groceries, he catches a warm, fond smile on Rantaro’s face, soft and genuine despite the reddened, irritated skin around his eyes. That’s what he was trying to achieve. Rantaro is really stunning when he smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> therapy is one of those professions where i'm like. do i have the cojones for this. but i'd like to, i think. idk helping people seems neato
> 
> teehee my headcanon careers are so obvious and predictable but i'll do anything for amami angst
> 
> i want!! to flesh out this au more!!! i really, just,,, hhhhkljdsf i have one (1) more planned fic for them and then i'll see what happens. but god married fic...... yeah
> 
> (maybe one where they adopt a kid too since shuichi mentioned that........ bro idk if i have the strength to create an oc for them to adopt though we'll see)
> 
> the document for this fic is titled "amami does THERAPY" and to anyone else it'll seem like he's a patient but no he is the therapist.
> 
> i really need to write my therapist!angie fic. she has angst too rantaro just doesn't know about it (also she gets to date HIMIKO which is radical)
> 
> okay i've talked enough byebye


End file.
